China put a rare land for the West

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“You don’t have cards,” Donald Trump noticed a famous Voludmir Zelinski earlier this year.

American presidents, the United States and Ukrainian are improving these days. But Trump’s brutal approach to international relations remains. All this is a force experience. Who has the best cards?

It seems that the Trump administration has now realized that in the commercial poker game with China, it is Beijing that extends to his possession. This month, the United States extended A 90 -day truce in its commercial war with China for another three months. As a result, China currently has more conflicting tariff prices with the United States than Switzerland or India. Ace’s Beijing is its near monopoly to produce rare land and other critical minerals that provide vital inputs for the Western industry and the American army.

The rare land names are still strange and unknown to the western ear. If Tom Lehrrar is still alive, he could have enhanced the audience’s understanding by placing it on music – as he did once with Chemical elements. However, in a complete commercial war, the Western audience may become familiar with names like Neodymium and Dysprosium.

China began to play its hand seriously immediately after the liberation day, April 2, when Trump announced the punishment for most of the world, with China severely injured. Two days later, the Ministry of Trade in Beijing Declare Export controls on seven types of rare land.

The influence on the world’s auto industry was exciting and felt within weeks. Jim Farley, Ford CEO, I confess In early June, a shortage of rare land used in Magnet His company forced to temporarily “close factories”. European manufacturers have faced similar problems.

In the face of this crisis, the Trump administration had to beg to reduce restrictions. A temporary agreement was reached in June. But if Trump raises the customs tariff to strategy levels again, it will certainly reinforce the strict exports controls. To date, it has not completely abandoned its restrictions on rare Earth’s exports. Orders from the outside that appear to be efforts stock The Earth is still rare.

Beijing’s grip on the critical inputs of the Western industry give China a unique hand in any trade war with the United States. The Chinese threat to prohibit the export of the rare land is a much stronger card than the European threat to prevent the export of Gucci bags.

Even some arms systems on which the United States relies on a war with China depends on the rare Chinese soil. the F-35 fighter The plane relies on many rare land obtained from the country-including Samarium, which is crucial for heat-resistant magnets and YTTRIUM, which is vital for targeting.

The green transition in Europe will also be grinded to stopping without fixed supply of critical Chinese minerals and rare land, such as gelmanium that is used in batteries. A prominent European politician recently told me: “Our dependence on Russia for energy is very moderate compared to our dependence on critical minerals. We bet on everything on the green economy and China can close us.”

China has built this strategic power over many decades. In 1987, Deng Xiaoping, the country’s leader at the time, commented: “The Middle East has oil. China has rare lands.” In fact, rare Earth was found all over the world. China’s willingness to adhere to dirty actions often of mining and treatment of critical minerals – and the rare land, which is a vital sub -group – that gave Beijing its near monopoly. As a result, the country is believed to have about 60-70 percent of the world’s rare land and control about 90 percent of its treatment and refining.

The West has always been aware of the theoretical dangers of relying on rare Chinese Earth. A Trump administration official also told me: “We have sat down to this problem for decades.” His point of view is that the West was suffering from a mixture of environmental fears and hesitation in punishing the state’s interference in the market.

will Trade warAllied with the growing military competition with China, and finally urged the West to reform the rare land problem? Can it move quickly enough?

There are signs of increased urgency in Washington and Brussels. When Trump recently announced a framework for a peace agreement between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, he stated, “We are getting the United States. He also pressed Ukraine to deliver metal rights, for American support. The Critical Critical Articles Law of the European Union, which came into effect last year, set goals to reduce dependence on China.

However, so far, the European Union has no rare ground mines and operation of only two major treatment factories. Overcoming environmental objections to treatment may be more difficult than accessing the metal. the Solvay A facility in western France was appointed to expand. But after the rules of the European Union will largely raise production costs.

“It takes more than 20 years to become China. It will take another 20 years to break the dependency,” says a Western security official. But the West may not have the luxury of a generation to fix the problem.

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